Can • Dizzy Dizzy • 1974

Restoration of the 1974 promo video for this classic Can track. • Dizzy Dizzy is the opening track from Soon Over Babaluma, the 6th album by German band Can. The album continued the ambient yet rhythmic style of its predecessor, Future Days. Vocalist, Damo Suzuki, had departed in ’73, so now vocal duties were shared between guitarist Michael Karoli & keyboardist Irmin Schmidt. On Dizzy Dizzy it’s Karoli on vocals. As Dominique Leone nicely puts it, in his 2005 review of the remastered edition of Soon Over Babaluma, “His (Karoli’s) refrain of “got to get it up, got to get it over“ serves the insistent, space-bounce of the track”. Can was a German experimental rock band formed in Cologne, Germany, in 1968 by Holger Czukay (bass), Irmin Schmidt (keyboards), Michael Karoli (guitar), and Jaki Liebezeit (drums). The band drew from backgrounds in avant-garde and jazz. Can incorporated minimalist, electronic, and world music elements into their often psychedelic and funk-inflected music. They have been widely hailed as pioneers of the German krautrock scene. Much of Can’s early music came from free improvisations recorded direct to 2-track, during long jam sessions at the bands Inner Space studio in Cologne. The recordings were later edited down and constructed into tracks for the studio albums. Can exerted a considerable influence on avant-garde, experimental, post-punk, ambient, new wave and electronic music. They were an influence on artists such as David Bowie, Talking Heads, The Fall, Public Image Ltd, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Joy Division, Suicide, Pavement, The Stone Roses, Sonic Youth, Happy Mondays, Talk Talk, The Jesus and Marychain and Primal Scream. Critic Simon Reynolds wrote that “Can’s pan-global avant-funk anticipated many of the moves made by sampladelic dance genres like trip hop, ethnotechno and ambient jungle.“ Can came to me in the mid-80’s. My colleague at Virgin Records High Street Croydon, Richard Bentley, from the band Circus Circus Circus, had made me a compilation tape, and featured on it was the track, “Moonshake” by Can, from their 1973 Future Days album. I was blown away by Future Days. The Side One’s of Future Days and Soon Over Babaluma soon became a mainstay of many smashed out of my brain post-rave all-nighters, throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Their extraordinary music is so profundly etched into my subconscious from those deep, deep listening sessions. Some of the very early work, and the latter Can albums, and some of their more far-out tracks don’t work for me. But the incredible trio of albums, Tago Mago (’71), Ege Bamyasi (’72) and the aforementioned Future Days (’73) contain some of the greatest music I have ever heard. I met Can keyboardist, Irmin Schmidt once. It was in the early 90’s at Midem, the annual music industry convention is Cannes. The music distributor I worked for was buying vinyl from Can’s label, Spoon Records, and my boss knew I was a huge Can fan. He sprung a surprise on me... and suddenly I’m shaking the hand of the guy who had contributed such an important part of the soundtrack of my life with his euphoric music. I did what I always do when I meet a personal hero: I was dumbstruck, and mumbled something to Mr. Schmidt that was I guess pretty incoherent. I was lucky enough to see one of the Can-Solo-Projects shows, in ’99. Michael Karoli, Irmin Schmidt, and Jaki Liebezeit played separate sets. Two years after that show, Michael Karoli passed away, and this year we lost both Jaki Liebezeit, and Holger Czukay, leaving Irmin Schmidt as the only surviving long-term member of Can. This edit is made from the partial video of Dizzy Dizzy, featured on the 1999 Can Documentary. Most of the music clips from the documentary are already online, but not Dizzy Dizzy. To me, the footage is a fascinating glimpse of the band in their Inner Space studio, where they jammed and experimented to produce the music for their early, important albums. Thanks for watching, hope you dig it! • Credits Audio: Can • Dizzy Dizzy • from the album Soon Over Babaluma • Recorded August 1974 • Released November 1974 • Produced by Can • Engineered & edited by Holger Czukay Video: Dizzy Dizzy promo video • 1974 • Directed by P. Przygodda / R. Müller • from Can Documentary • 1999 Musicians: Michael Karoli • vocals, violin, guitar Irmin Schmidt • organ, electric piano, alpha 77 Jaki Liebezeit • drums, percussion Holger Czukay • bass • Always more videos to follow, so please keep your electric eye on me babe! I don’t own the rights, and I’m not making any money out of this etc. Just a fan making videos for other fans. Please Share, Like, Comment, Subscribe TheNachoVideos@ I edit, therefore I am #Can #SoonOverBabaluma